LECTURE

ON

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THE ART OF DELIVERY,

AND T1IE

INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL DISCIPLINE

0N |H£ LlBKAKV Oi- IHt

PUBLIC ORATORY; MAY 9 - 1941

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

DELIVERED TO THE EDINBURGH LOCAL ASSOCIATION

OF THE

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SCOTLAND,

In the High School, Edinburgh, on October 21st, 1854,

BY

ALEX. MELVILLE BELL, F.R.S.S.A.

Professor of Elocution and Vocal Physiology,

Author of the “ Principles of Speech the “ Elocutionary Manual “ Observations
on Speech, the Cure of Stammering,” &c.; “ Popular Stenography
“ Readings in Curt-Shorthand," <fcc. &c.

SECOND EDITION.

EDINBURGH: W. P. KENNEDY;
LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO.

SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

Price Sixpence.

A

I HE UliKAKV OK THE

MAY 9 - 1941

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

LECTURE

ON

THE ART OF DELIVERY,

ETC., ETC.

Elocution, or the Art of Delivery, is a subject of such universal
importance in a land of popular institutions like ours, that
every individual, of whatever social rank, should be initiated
into, at least, its rudiments, theoretical and practical. These
comprise distinct enunciation, natural modulation of the voice,
the power of “ speaking out ” with pulmonary ease, and a grace-
ful carriage of the body. These fundamental requisites of
oratory should be imparted in the common school, commencing
in the alphabet class, and progressing through every subsequent
stage of education till fixed by the routine into a habit.

The meaning of the term Elocution has undergone a change
since the days of the first writers on the subject. The Art of
Oratory, which was so popular a study with the ancient Greeks
and Romans, was taught under four great divisions — Invention,
Disposition, Elocution, and Pronunciation. Invention and Dis-
position treated of the selection and arrangement of arguments ;
Elocution, of the choice of language and rhetorical figures ; and
Pronunciation, of the management of the voice and gesture.
This last department was always reckoned of the first importance,
for without a knowledge of this, all the other branches of the

1

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subject were comparatively powerless. Thus, a ready and
fertile invention of new grounds of argument and ratiocination,
could avail but little without a knowledge of the best modes
of disposition, to classify the mass of ideas, and range them in
the most comprehensive and forcible array ; and these arranged
grounds of argument and reasoning needed the aid of the third
oratorical division before they could be made practically service-
able ; appropriate language was necessary to give the mental
conceptions a visible existence. Still there was a deficiency :
written language was little effective, and its power necessarily
circumscribed to those few who could read with discernment and
profit. The art of bringing out the latent beauties and energies
of language by oral expression, and of enforcing argument by
the powerful language of emotion, was therefore studied as the
climax of the whole. The paramount importance of a good de-
livery on all occasions, accounts for the preservation of this divi-
sion of the ancient art of Oratory from the desuetude into which
the systematic formalities of Composition have fallen. The topics
and common-places which formed the ready framework for all
sorts of disquisitions, and supplied an exuberance of matter ap-
plicable to any subject, could not be carried into the business of
life. Every-day concerns demand perspicuous brevity ; they
would only be embarrassed by circumlocution. The ancient loci
consequently have been confined to the composition of set
harangues, and verbose writings on laconic texts ; to abstract
questions and philosophical speculations. But to whatever style
of composition we give utterance, a cultivated delivery is equally
necessary.

Writings will vary as writers change their models, or as they
create new styles of composition ; but the good speaker follows
no variable example ; for Nature is his guide. All ideas being ac-
companied by some sensation in the mind, he joins the natural
expression of the sensation with the conventional signs of the
idea ; and thus his tones, looks, gestures, rate of utterance, &c.,
serve to extend the province of language, and make it speak to
the feelings as well as to the intellect. For, the verbal signs
of ideas do not stand as symbols of feeling also : and even
though the idea which the words represent naturally gives rise to
certain emotions, the mere words will not call up the feeling,
though they represent the thought. Thus it is quite possible —

A

nay, how common ! — to read a sentence with full comprehension
of its ideas, yet without any of the indices of feeling which the
ideas necessarily excite in the person placed in the situation
which the words describe.

Elocution may be defined — “ The Art of Speech.” It com-
prehends all that gives effect to composition in delivery : the
management of the voice, and the organs of articulation ; and
also the external signs of emotion, as manifested by the counte-
nance, the eyes, and the gesticulations of the body.

Without the graces of delivery, the finest composition is little
more effective than the rudest and most unpolished. Intrinsic
beauty is obscured by awkwardness and want of extrinsic embel-
lishment. As the brilliancy of a lustrous mineral is seen only
when the surface is polished, and the gem is most admired when
polished most ; so the felicities of language are only recognised
in appropriate delivery, and best appreciated when most skil-
fully delivered.

The sermon to which we listened with eager attention, and
with a feeling of personal interest, from some talented preacher,
would have produced no impression on our feelings, had its deli-
livery been entrusted to the monotonous clerk. The speech that
thrilled all the chords of sympathy, as its rich, varied melody fell
on our absorbed senses from the lips of the master tragedian,
would have failed to move us — except to laughter — had the call-
boy spoken it.

By such facts, the advocates for a cold, stoical delivery, may
surely be answered. In both cases which we have supposed, the
subject-matter undergoes no change. The finely apposite simile, —
the conclusive reasoning, — the bold apostrophe, — the smooth
melody of chosen words and artistically formed periods, remain
the same — yet, how different their effects ! We cannot concede
the propositions, that the mental faculties are so powerful, as
only to require plain facts to be plainly set before them ; and
that the reasoning powers need only to perceive .the pro et con of
argument, in order to draw conclusions on any subject : daily
experience shows us that the mind cannot profitably exert its
powers, whether of perception, conception, judgment, or of any
other class, unless its full and undivided attention can be com-
manded ; and also, that the mind will not sustain attentiveness
unless it can be interested. Still, true it is, that there are those

6

who condemn and repudiate any attempt at rhetorical delivery as
an effort to bias the mind, and influence the judgment against its
calm dictates. Above all, they would banish Elocution from the
pulpit — as theatrical, unbecoming the sacred rostrum, and as,
withal, an insult to their reason, — to that very reason which, we
venture to assert, were it exercised without prejudice, would
surely controvert the position so dogmatically maintained. For,
the object and the tendency of Elocution are to awaken, not to
sway the judgment — to fix attention to argument, not to subvert
the reasoning faculties. This, simply, is the province of Elocu-
tion ; and they who would banish its attractions from the pulpit,
and exile them to the stage, do high service to profanity, and
vast disservice and dishonour to religion.

When preachers attach any meaning to the epithet — theatrical
delivery, what is the manner of which they speak, and by whom is it
practised ? Whom in the histrionic profession do they stigmatize ?
They cannot certainly mean the Kembles, the Siddonses, the
Youngs, the Keans, the Macreadys, of the stage. Such gifted
players, and some even of less note, have shed a glory on the
theatrical profession, and given to our National Councils the
most illustrious models of judicial eloquence, as exemplified n
Chatham, Pitt, Sheridan, and Canning.

Indeed, it is not likely that reverend gentlemen, few of whom
are ever seen within the walls of a theatre, can of their own
knowledge venture an opinion respecting the manner of any
actor. The assertions upon which the objections are founded are
scarcely worthy of notice. They are the crude and ignorant re-
marks of persons very little competent to form any judgment of
the histrionic art. We are inclined to think that when the great
actor’s declamatory powers are condemned, the plot, and some
particular character of the drama, rather than the style of de-
livery, must be the real objects of reprobation. Under any cir-
cumstances, the true representatives of the stage cannot be in-
cluded in the general censure. The mere underlings of our
theatres may, not unjustly, be repudiated as models for imitation ;
but no reasonable critic could denounce the acting of Garrick or
Kemble, in Hamlet, for no other cause than that the parts of Ro-
zencrantz and Guildenstern were miserably filled. Are we to judge
of an art which calls into action, and can only be sustained by,
the highest accomplishments, mental and bodily, by the rude

7

essays of men whose best achievements would not entitle them
to a fourth-rate place on the dramatic scale ? Would the sen-
tence be just which should contemn the eminent masters in paint-
ing, for no better reason than that a few daubers had exhibited
their ungainly offspring as signs to public houses ? As the noble
art of Painting would be, so the grand and intellectual art of
Acting is, instead of being injured or degraded, the more exalted
by such paltry and ignorant efforts to decry it.

A theatrical manner of delivery, in its legitimate and artistical
meaning, is chaste, pure, classical. The harmonious action of
the vocal organs — the faculties of speech co-operating with the
highest powers of the intellect — the heart speaking to the heart,
in language and tones which never offend by their vulgarity,
and which captivate the mind, without “ o’erstepping the mo-
desty o* nature,” — this it is to be in a just sense “ theatrical
and to l^is extent, we sincerely wish, even for the sake of our
religious services, that all persons who read the Sacred Scrip-
tures, and the divine compositions in the Liturgy, or who pro-
claim to men the hopes and blessings of our faith, were studious
of being theatrical in their manner of delivery. It was with such
soul-expressive utterance that the Apostle of the Gentiles spoke
and “ reasoned of righteousness and judgment to come,” when the
Roman governor trembled under the magical influence of the
Christian Orator.

The stage has declined in popular estimation, chiefly from the
want of systematic education in its professors. The pulpit sul-
lies its substantial erudition, by sinking, in respect of delivery, to
a much lower deep, than that which conceals the dramatic genius
of English literature.

But we cannot conceive that the great want of anything like
skill in reading, which has been so long the blemish of the
British pulpit, is owing to the low estimation in which the clergy
hold the art of delivery. We rather think, with Mr Sheridan,
that the cause and fault of their inefficiency lie not in them-
selves, so much as in the erroneous way in which they have been
taught to read by their early instructors.

Mr Sheridan remarks — “ They are originally set wrong on
principle, and yet think themselves right. And when the faulty
manner has taken root, by custom, and a length of years, how
difficult, nay impossible would it be, even supposing that

8

they were made conscious of it, to change such habits, with-
out the assistance of skilful persons to point out the particulars
in which they are faulty, and show how they may be amended .
And the man who wants such information from a consciousness
of his deficiency, is yet restrained from applying for it, by a false
shame ; considering it as a disgrace to acknowledge that he did
not know how to read at that time of life. For this is the light
in which they consider it, confounding under one term, two very
distinct things, that of mere reading, and of reading well.”

These circumstances, which tend to exonerate the custom-
enslaved reader from the charge of neglect, afford no justification
to those who have not time-fixed habits to contend against, nor do
they exculpate the great seats of learning, for their scanty, — nay,
almost total want of any — provision for the Elocutionary training
of their students. The heads of our Universities and Colleges are
grossly negligent in this particular. They fit their scholars for an
enlightened intercourse with books, — but not with men. They

“ Give an understanding, but no tongue

and, therefore, to them may be justly attributed much of the
vocal incapacity which prevails. The Bar, learned in the
subtleties of the law, keen in its logic, and remarkable for its
zeal, enounces its technicalities and profuse phraseology with
every provincial phase of utterance. The collected wisdom of
the united kingdoms, even our senatorial assemblies, exhibit also
in some degree the geographical diversities of speech that
characterize the uneducated. Our universities, rich in the
treasures of science, profoundly conversant with the venerable
lore of which the classic languages of Greece and Rome are the
depositaries, are to no small extent tainted with the latitudinal
and longitudinal brogues, and other vices of delivery. Now,
these distinctive marks, — which, if they may not always tell the
place of birth, do, in a manner liable to little mistake, proclaim
where and how each individual has been educated, — are the
results of early negligence, the badges of school neglect. The
formation of such habits should be counteracted from the first,
and in every stage of education, in the school, where that pure
and classical parlance should prevail, which indicates, not a
province, but the region of good society.

Is it not strange, while the highest specimens extant of prac-

tical eloquence are to be found in those dead languages which
engross our students and, ridiculously, even our schoolboys, that
these models of oratory have not been taken as exemplars in the
natural sense, by teaching us to cultivate our mother tongue ?
Worthless to us are the grand philippics and orations of an earlier
civilization if they do not teach us this lesson. Bootless folly it
is to persist as we do “in seeking the living among the dead.”
Our universities are filled by young men from every part of the
country, with every tint of rusticity on their tongues, and we set
them to study the languages of Tully and Demosthenes, when
they cannot speak their own vernacular with propriety ! In due
time the novices are gowned, capped, and diplomaed before an
admiring world as Masters of Arts, — masters of all arts but that
— the first in importance — of being endurable, far less eloquent,
in the delivery of their native language. Why are there not
Professorships for Eloquence ? and why are not academical
honours awarded to the successful student of elocution ? These
are questions which have been often asked, but which have only
received for answer the echoes of the venerable scholastic piles.

Delivery, in the estimation of the classic ancients, held its
natural rank as a study of pre-eminent importance and prime
necessity, — and the excellence of the old orators was the conse-
quence. Now, in our neglect of this Art, delivery is — as the in-
genious Dr Rush of America has ludicrously, but too truly
described it — a mere instinct, by which some men only bleat,
bray, bark, whinny, or mew, a little better than others.

Few of our speakers possess any more than an instinctive ac-
quaintance with the processes of speech. Although these are
entirely artificial, our Orators know nothing of speaking as an
Art. Little has been done by authors — as observers — to investigate
the principles of this Art ; but in many cases, where grammar-
ians, elocutionists, and lexicographers have ventured to speak of
the mechanics of articulation and vocalization, they have done so
ignorantly, and with gross misdirection. On these fundamentals of
Oratory, the great majority of our “ Rhetorical Readers ” and
“ Academic Speakers” are absolutely silent, as if the subjectwere
unworthy of attention ; whereas the omission of this rudimental
instruction renders the directions that are given worthless and una-
vailing. These latter consist chiefly of rules which pre-suppose in
the pupil a perfect mastery over the processes of pronunciation, in-

a 5

10

flection, &c. ; rules, too, which are almost limitless in extent and
variety, but which may be fully superseded by some half-a-dozen
easily apprehended principles.

This useless multiplication of rules constitutes the great error
in almost all our modern systems of Delivery or Elocution. In-
stead of making the rules of Nature our study, we are taught the
rules of the Elocutionist, and Nature is made to strain and worm
itself into them. It is like a tailor first making a garment, and
then clipping the customer to fit his handiwork. Every one will
at once see the folly of this operation ; and he would soon show
disapprobation, in a way which could not be mistaken by the
unfortunate practitioner who should attempt it ! So in the
former case. Nature is not that passive thing which its Elocu-
tionary tailors would make it. It resists also. The countenance
affords a test, happily independent of the will, of the extent to
which the speaker’s feelings are affected. There is an index in
the countenance, which, though it does not ensure us against
hypocrisy, is yet a strong check upon it ; insomuch that, if any
passion lurks within, if the feelings are touched, there are natu-
ral symptoms which cannot be suppressed. Lavater, the cele-
brated physiognomist, will be allowed to be no mean authority on
this subject. He says : — “ When any passion is called into ac-
tion, such passion is depicted by the motions of the muscles ; and
these motions are accompanied by a strong palpitation of the
heart. If the countenance be tranquil, it always denotes tran-
quillity in the region of the breast.” By this test, were we to
measure the degree of earnestness of many whose prelections are
on subjects of the most vital importance, we should find it fall
far, very far, short of what the subject demands. Indeed, we
have high authority for doubting the credibility of the assertions
of those who use none of the natural signs of the feelings to en-
force the truth of what they affirm.

We would not, indeed, carry out this principle to its full ex-
tent, and refuse credence to the calm, philosophic speaker ; but
we may justly suspect the sincerity of him who does not only ne-
glect the externals of natural feeling, but who indulges in others
at variance with every expression of nature. There is a cant of
this kind which has been called the “ reading brogue” — a whining,
sing-song expression, which is most common where least admissi-
ble, viz., in reading religious composition. That this has many

11

pious and zealous imitators wo do not doubt ; but that it has
originated in callousness and indifference, wo conceive there can
be as little question.

We instinctively read the countenance of a speaker before he
opens his lips, and from such glances speculate with much truth
upon his character ; and when the powers of articulation are im-
perfect or slow, we anticipate the words by our perusal of the
feelings which are depicted on the face. Words are but arbitrary
signs of ideas, and can only be understood by those who have
been trained to the connection. The language of feeling is a
natural one — not national or local. In whatever tongue we may
articulate, strangers to its meaning would yet interpret the lead-
ing feelings which actuate us, were we to cultivate the union of
the natural with the artificial language. In this union our coun-
trymen are much more defective than our continental neigh-
bours. Caution is a leading feature in the national character,
and its effect is to conceal the workings of the passions. This
gives a firmness and steadiness, but, at the same time, a frigidity
to the character. To avoid volatility, we run into the opposite
extreme, and become solid to insipidity.

The Abbe Maury, an eminent French writer on Eloquence,
says, and justly says, of the English : — “ Famous islanders ! it
is not genius, it is the genius of Oratory that you want. The
human mind owes an unceasing debt of gratitude for your sub-
lime discoveries on light, on gravitation, on electricity, on tlio
aberration of the stars ; but let not your pride be wounded if we
contest the pre-eminence with your orators. Eloquence, the
usual companion of liberty, is a stranger in your country. Add to
the glory of the good actions which are so common there, the merit,
perhaps no less honourable, of knowing how to celebrate them.”

Elocution has been considered a study beyond the sphere of
the middle ranks of society ; and the consequence of this mistake
has been its neglect by all classes. The effects of this neglect
are seen in the various dialects which prevail in different locali-
ties, and the numerous defects of utterance which abound in all ;
and which, in their mildest forms, are a disagreeable blemish,
while in many instances they constitute a very serious drawback
to advancement in life. Were the art of Speech properly under-
stood and taught in our initiatory schools, these often painful
afflictions would not find a place in the catalogue of human

12

infirmities. For we cannot withhold our conviction, that
the cause of the generally low state of articulative power is
no other than the worthless manner in which reading is taught at
our schools ; — not merely worthless, but positively injurious — for it
does not only fail to make good readers — to check vicious habits
of speech, or to impart any one principle by which to regulate
vocal action — but it gives additional root and culture to defects,
and sows them where they had not a previous existence. The
reason is : words, and not sounds, are taught. No explanation
is attempted of the principles by which the various phenomena
of speech are produced. The air, which is moulded into audible
forms by the most artificial of all processes, is not even recog-
nised as the indispensable material which it is ; for no provision
is made for regulating its use : the wonderfully plastic organiza-
tion, by the delicate movements and flexions of which, the ever-
varying combinations of sounds are struck off with a lightness
and dexterity unequalled by any mechanism that human skill
has devised, is left to the uncertain guidance of chance ; and its
operations have no other director than instinctive imitation.
Our elocutionary condition, therefore, can only be in proportion
to that of those who have happened to be our models. Thus, in
the natural course of events, we retrogade, and not advance,
beyond the standard which chance had assigned to us.

There is scarcely any individual who does not afford some exercise
to the very sensitive imitative faculties of youth. The eye of a
professed critic has not so keen a perception as that of the infant,
to whom all things are new. The child that you fondle on
your knee is imperceptibly and insensibly photographing, in a
most tenacious memory, whatever may be most striking in your
manners or appearance ; and the day will come when those first
impressions will beget life-lasting habits ! Imitation is the great
agent in the formation of society — the busiest, and the most
powerful. It is a leader which enlists all, and does not ask the
will’s consent. To imitation we owe our national habits and our
provincial peculiarities — the burr of Northumberland, and the
buzzing of Somersetshire ; the drawl of rusticity, and the flip-
pant accents of the metropolis ; the sharp intonation of Aber-
deen, and the sonorous twang of Fifeshire ; the nasal tones of
some of the American States ; the numerous patois of France,
and district dialects in all countries. It is, therefore, to be de-

sired that, when we have been endowed with a perfect vocal or-
ganization, we should be taught — what Nature will not direct us
in — the right use of it ; if it were for no other reason than that
we may so hand down the same as an inheritance to the rising
generation. Let us cultivate a correct and natural way of speak-
ing in ourselves, and the next generation will need less instruc-
tion.

The first step in any work is in general the most important.
Upon the correct laying of the keel and timbers depends the
true proportional conformation of the sides of the future vessel ;
upon the solidity of the foundation depends the security of the
superincumbent house. And so in mental structures. The
three simple rules which form the basis of the science of arith-
metic, are indispensable to the working of any problem through-
out the wide range of the science. If they are neglected, there
is little hope of progress in the more abstruse parts of the study.
And as with arithmetic, so with the art of reading. The Alpha-
bet, which is the raw material, from the union of which into ar-
tificial combinations the whole fabric of written language is
woven, is justly made the first object of the teacher’s care.
Without a preliminary acquaintance with these elements of
words, advancement must be tedious and uncertain. The al-
phabet is, or ought to be, a collection of all the letters which re-
present the simple sounds and articulations of the language, so
as to exhibit its elements at one view ; and if the poivers of the
letters coincided with the names assigned to them, a knowledge
of the alphabet would go far to enable the tyro to read. We all
know the time which is usually spent in acquiring a facility in
naming the letters ; and we likewise know how far we are, then,
from being able to enounce at sight even their most simple
combinations. Indeed, so great a want of connection is there
between the names and powers of the letters of the English
alphabet, that a child might with almost equal advantage be set
to study the Hebrew characters, or the Chinese hieroglyphics, as
a preliminary to learning to read, as be kept so long and so
uselessly drudging with our a, b, c.

In the discrepancies of the alphabet lie the roots of those
monstrosities which predominate in school-boy reading, and which
have almost banished Nature from our oratory. Our alphabet is
grossly imperfect ; and it will always, while uncorrected, render

14

a knowledge of the elements of our language far more difficult of
attainment than it ought to be : yet the alphabet is not so bad
but that with care, and the requisite skill in sounds on the part
of the teacher, it may be made to answer all necessary purposes,
without the formidable but otherwise unavoidable work, of refor-
ming our entire orthography.

There is but one rational way of teaching the Alphabet for the
purposes of speech : it is to impart only the actual powers of the
letters , irrespective of their names. By this mode of initiation, a
foundation would be laid for perfect articulation, and at every
onward step, conducted on just principles of Art, improvement
would keep pace with progression.

There is no process more delicate than that of fixing the true
seats of the articulations of speech. It requires in the teacher
an intimate knowledge of the nature of the machinery to which
he is giving action ; and an ear refined by cultivation, and
quickened by practice to detect errors in the employment of the
vocal mechanism, in cases where the motion of the parts is con-
cealed from the eye. The want of these requisites on the part
not only of abecedarians, but of teachers of reading generally,
accounts for the very rare instances in which we find graceful
and distinct enunciation ; or even the latter, however awkward,
in the youths who have finished their academical training.

Ail persons who profess to teach reading should be thoroughly
acquainted with what we may call the classical pronunciation of
the elements of speech. This knowledge ought to be an indis-
pensable requisite even in an elementary teacher of reading ; for
it is of greater moment, both as respects the pupils individually
and the community which requires his services, than in the master
the most profound acquaintance with the dead languages. This
necessary accomplishment is rarely to be found ; and, we are
sorry to say, that no present or contemplated future educational
reform makes the possession of such requisites compulsory on
teachers of this important branch of education. Nay, are candi-
dates for the preceptorial office even encouraged to make them-
selves practically efficient in the phonics of speech ? Does this
Educational Institute of Scotland incite its noviciates to pursue
this study, by the hope of honourable recognition of achieved
ability ? No : the highest practical skill earns no laurels here,
unless the living accomplishment Carry as a passport the sine qua

15

non of dead lore. Whatever be the candidate’s chosen educa-
tional sphere — writing, drawing, arithmetic, dancing, or the
a, b, c — one of the first requirements of his exarainators is a
knowledge of the Classics ! Absurd ! This policy ignores the
fact that teaching is an art ; altogether different from, and to a
great extent independent of, mere book-knowledge. While the
Institute aims at becoming a constituted authority, whose licence
to teach shall be acknowledged as necessary for the duly quali-
fied instructor, it really affords no guarantee for excellence in
the practical work of teaching. Examination papers may suffice
to put the candidate’s knowledge to the proof, but there is much
in the art of teaching that cannot be so tested, but which must
be tried by the standard of actual experiment.

As the aspirant to the honour of a diploma from a Medical or
Surgical Board, must, in addition to the necessary amount of
theoretical knowledge of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and
pharmacy, prove his pharmaceutical experience in the laboratory
and dispensary, his clinical experience in the hospital, his ability
to operate by scalpel experience in the dissecting-room ; so the
candidate for the diploma of a duly qualified teacher, should be
required, not only to pass examination on his course of preparatory
study, but also, and chiefly, to prove his practical ability in the
class-room, in that department of the art of teaching to which he
intends devoting himself, and for which he seeks to obtain a
certificate of fitness.

There would be some reason in the present mode of procedure,
if teachers, like medical men, were liable to be called at a
moment’s notice to practise indiscriminately all departments of
their profession ; but when, as is generally the case, each educa-
tional practitioner confines his instruction to some one subject, or
some limited range of subjects, how absurd it is to compel
him to be, less a master in that one chosen and peculiar pro-
vince, than a smatterer in all departments ! For such is prac-
tically the effect of setting up a fixed standard of general
knowledge for the different grades of Membership, Associate-
ship, and Fellowship, irrespective of peculiar departmental
excellence, and of requiring as the first qualification here, there,
and everywhere, in all grades and departments, the invariable
item, “ classics, classics, classics.” Why, a man may be the
best caligraphist, and the best teacher of penmanship in a

parish, though ignorant as a city Arab of hie, hcec, hoc , and alto-
gether unlettered in Greek ; and an Educational Council ought
to certify the measure and the kind of his professional ability,
without reference to his incompetency in any non-professional de-
partment. And, on the other hand, a person may be skilled in
all the learning of the Egyptians, as well as of the Greeks and
Romans, and yet unqualified to teach a class with a tithe of the
effect of one who with infinitely less erudition, is master of the
Art of Discipline, including in that term Scholastic Government
and (to frame a word) Didactics.

I have not wandered from my text in passing these strictures
on the general policy of our Institute. The teacher of reading
has to do with sounds as well as letters, and I do not find that any
share of attention is prescribed for the attainment of vocal effi-
ciency in candidates. A teacher who is not himself acquainted
with the principles of vocal modulation, or who cannot exemplify
them in his own practice, must fail in this department of his
teaching, if he attempt it ; but he will most naturally bestow no
attention at all upon the subject, and his pupils may, without
direction or correction, shout or whine or stutter, and spread the
contagion of a vicious example over an entire school.

Besides, when an attempt is made to impart instruction in
Elocution, it is too commonly confined to useless recitations, and
the repetition of rules, in the fancied application of which, Nature
and the intention of the precepts are most wondrously outraged,
by the pompous mouthing and singularly mechanical intonation,
which are presented as the elocutionary model, and practical
exemplification of the printed rules. The truth is, the study of
Elocution has been impracticably encumbered with rules, be-
neath which its few and simple principles lie buried and unthought
of ; so much so, that teachers, with all varieties of dialect and
styles of intonation, read and teach, as they conceive, in accord-
ance with the rules, while in fact they are but communicating to
the pupil their own artificiality of manner ; checking and warping,
instead of strengthening and developing, that inborn faculty
of eloquence which flourished in the nursery, till it was blighted
in the schoolroom. A. preliminary to rules for the reading of
sentences is wanted in a practical gamut of sounds. Music can-
not be learned without its gamut, nor can the soul-expressive

17

melody of speech be attained or taught without this fundamental
requisite, — a knowledge of its scales.

Sounds were before letters ; letters are the signs, sounds the
things signified. The rational order, therefore, would surely be
to teach — not the symbols first, but the things of which they are
symbolic. What shall we say, then, of the ordinary course of
school instruction, which begins and ends with the signs, and
altogether ignores the sounds — teaches the type , and neglects
to teach the antitype ? The process is as unnatural as its re-
sults are abortive. His own mouth, and not a hornbook, should
be the child’s primer ; his ear, and not his eye, should be the first
medium of instruction. And thus, instead of ability to articulate
lagging behind even the tardy knowledge of letters, it would be
greatly in advance of literary skill. We begin with books too
soon : we should teach to speak, and speak fluently, before we
prescribe a single printed lesson. By conversational instruction,
and articulative exercise, how delightful may a child’s first months
at school be made ! And there would be no time lost even in the
acquisition of letters ; for with the occasional use of a black
board, all the literal elements of language that are the object
of such painful learning to the uninterested mind, would be
taught by merely incidental and amusing illustration, — ay, and
better taught than when they are made the object of direct in-
struction.

Next to the moulding of a distinct articulation, the proper
modulation of a child’s voice should be the first care of every
teacher of the elements of language. We will be bold enough to
assert, that there are few, if any public schools in the United
Kingdom, in which the pupils are taught to read with that deep
and impressive harmony of which the human voice is capable,
even in the tender years of infancy. A wildly fatiguing falsetto,
foreign to nature, not allied to the intellect, destructive to healthy
respiration, is made the channel of the breath, and for sounds
which but for this barbarous pitch of voice, would glow with that
ardour of truth and nature which warm hearts can feel when ad-
dressing kindred spirits. It is absurd to think that the screech
and squeal are the natural keys for the voices even of infants. A
little practice in the right direction would remove from our
schools this offensive and injurious custom.

Perhaps few schoolmasters are aware that the general health

18

of their pupils may be promoted, or sometimes seriously impaired,
by the state of respiration, while engaged in their reading exer-
cises. The vocalization of the breath, so as not to interfere with
the vital and pulmonary necessities, requires attention, and often
consummate skill on the part of the teacher. The high scream-
ing key, so characteristic of reading in nearly all our seminaries,
is incompatible with salutary respiration ; and it renders the
effective cultivation of oratory, in after-life, almost impracticably
difficult. The voice becomes so inflexible, and the ear so de-
praved, that practically the custom is indeed a second Nature.
For this our schools are answerable. Let them teach sounds be-
fore letters — the elements of pronunciation before the rudiments
of writing — speaking before reading, and English before classics ;
and let them cultivate a conversational modulation of the voice
in every exercise, and the harshness and deformity of the second
nature will give place to the soul-attuned harmony, grace, and
euphony of the first and primal Nature.

Passing over the gradations of one, two, and three syllable
practice, let us direct our attention to the more advanced pupils
— to those who have gone through all preliminaries, and rank
in the enviable elevation of the senior class. We place a book
in the hands of the dux — the proud wearer of the silver medal
— and he reads a paragraph. We observe by his reading that
he has been taught to consider the commas, semicolons, colons,
and full points, as the only allowable halting places, and to
give to each of these rests a mutually proportionate duration :
the comma being to the semicolon as one to two ; the semicolon
bearing the same proportion to the colon ; and the colon to the
full point.

Now these marks have no relation whatever to time, or to any-
thing connected with delivery. They are simply used to show
the grammatical connection of the parts of a sentence : — cons-
tructive perspicuity is their only aim. To accomplish that, not
a fourth part of the marks is required or used which would be in-
dispensable were their object to direct the voice in reading. It
may be urged by teachers that they are fully aware of the object
of common punctuation, and that they do not teach its reference
to time only, but in conjunction with its true province — the elu-
cidation of sense. We answer, that we judge of their ideas on
such matters by the effects which we witness in their pupils.

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Lecture on the art of delivery,.-

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19

We do not concede that to know is enough to qualify a person
for teaching. The duly qualified preceptor is not the one who
knows most, but he who has the greatest talent — for it is
a peculiar one — of imparting his knowledge to others. It
will not admit of denial that school-boys do read as if the
punctuation commonly in use were their only direction in the
art of managing the voice and breath. They sustain the same
current of unvaried sound, and the same stream of air to the
nearest mark ; and, like a jaded horse hurrying on to its
baiting place, they come in, panting and breathless. In con-
sequence of this mismanagement — and the remark applies
to more than school- boys — the last words of each emission are in-
audible for want of physical power to give them due effect. Now
every one acquainted at all with the subject knows, that the con-
cluding words of a sentence are those which, generally, of all
others require most enforcing. Here, then, is one glaring defect !
But we often find, also, that the pupil, physically unable to keep
up to the nearest point, pauses abruptly in the very middle of a
sentence — nay, sometimes of a word — wherever, indeed, necessity
compels him — to replenish his exhausted lungs.

From this random respiration we naturally infer, that the pupil
has not been instructed in the relation of breath to speech at
all, but that he is completely ignorant of the process which
he is blindly conducting — the formation of articulate sounds.
Acquainted with no way of economising the use of the breath
— familiar with none of the places allowable for the recovery
of what is necessarily expended ; his chest is kept in a ^continual
state of collapse, in order to squeeze out the little air which may
remain in his lungs.

The evil which this practice produces is incalculable ! The
diseases which there is too much reason to fear it engenders,
which we know it greatly aggravates, are of so insidious a nature,
that they are often deeply rooted before their presence is known,
and we are left to judge of the cause, only from the too ripened con-
sequence. The habit becomes settled, the chest sunken, contracted,
and almost inactive, — the lungs, consequently, have not sufficient
room for the healthy performance of their functions : their expan-
sion is never complete, nor can they retain long enough the air
which they receive. The pressure of the thorax upon them, like
that of the hand upon a sponge, expels the air as soon as it is

20

inhaled ; yet does the poor sufferer, during this most baneful
action, continue to read on, unconscious, for some time, of any
other feeling than that of uneasiness — which is often attributed
to bashfulness — till, perhaps, some serious pulmonary affection,
brings his fate to a crisis. That this is no fanciful exag-
geration, the consumptive aspect of a large proportion of
young clergymen will too painfully manifest : while the really
salutary nature of their public functions, properly conducted, is
as plainly evidenced by the robust longevity of those whom
better knowledge, or a happy intuition, has directed to a natural
management of the breath.

Now, these evil consequences could not ensue, were the pupil
taught to divide his sentences into their correlative or accentual
groups of words, and to read by propositions, and not by
punctuation. Every new subject, every new predicate, every
new adjunct, expressive of manner, reason, time, place, or any
other complement, whether it consist of a complete sentence or of a
ivord — which is often an elliptical sentence — presents itself as an
independent fact to the mind of the thinker ; and can only be
justly uttered by the reader — as it is invariably by the extempore
speaker — when pronounced with tone and pause that distinctly
circumscribe the idea ; — thus presenting each separate fact to the
hearer’s mind as an independent conception, whatever be the
degree of its correlation to the other facts in the context. In
short, the principle which was advocated lately by Professor
Mulligan,* as the basis of an improved method of teaching
Grammar, is the only natural and effective one for teaching
Reading ; and I have no hesitation in saying, that the general
adoption of this principle in schools, either instead of, or
in connection with, the ordinary method of word -parsing,
would not only advance a knowledge of grammar, and
skill in practical composition, but would tend, inevitably and

* Rev. John Mulligan, A.M. (of America.) This gentleman, in compliance
with an invitation subscribed by a number of the leading teachers in Edinburgh,
gave a public and gratuitous exposition of the principles laid down in his
Treatise on the “ Grammatical Structure of the English Language ; ” his
object being to furnish an improved method of teaching grammar. The mode
proposed consisted in the fundamental analysis of sentences into subjects, pre-
dicates, and adjuncts, rather than into verbal “ parts of speech.” The lecturer
discarded the ordinary “parsing” terms, and advocated the substitution of a
nomenclature for the clausular elements of sentences.

21

vastly, to the improvement of school-boy reading, both as regards
accuracy of apprehension, and natural variety of vocal expres-
sion. Presenting much more frequent opportunities to modulate
the voice and relieve the respiration, than ordinary punctuation
affords, this principle of clausular pronunciation and inflection
would not fail to break that monotonous continuity of tone which
now prevails, and thus impart a conversational spontaneity to the
vocal movements ; while, at the same time, it would convert
reading, from a laborious and often injurious task, into a most
salutary exercise — a very antidote to pulmonary disease.

The limits of a single lecture do not admit of much exem-
plary illustration, or it might easily be manifested by abundant
instances that, in correct and logical reading, the chief pauses
and completive tones must often occur where there is not even
a comma used in the common punctuation ; and that semicolons,
and even colons, are frequently printed — and justly so, accord-
ing to the rules of punctuation — where the pause must be of
the briefest, and the tone of the most continuative kind, where
indeed hiatus of any sort is almost inadmissible.

The gasping and uneasy vocal respiration, the habit of which
is acquired in schools, as the result of ill-directed reading, is but
another proof that Public Oratory can derive little of good from
the discipline of our schools in their present systematic neglect of
the Physiology of Speech, from the Alphabet-class to the Uni-
versity. Letters are the all-absorbing object of study ; sounds
being as little thought of as if mankind were mute, and conversed
only in writing : and the English language is as little studied
as if our business in the world were conducted in Greek
and Latin. This is a grand mistake. A knowledge of the
verbal inflexions of the ancients is no doubt a good thing, but a
practical acquaintance with the vocal inflexions of the moderns is
by far a better ; a knowledge of the wisdom of the olden sages is
not to be despised, but the power to give it utterance in our own
language is the more enviable acquisition ; the precepts of the
ancient philosophers and rhetoricians are well worth knowing,
and the models of their eloquence are fully deserving of our
study, but it were greatly better to imitate their practice than
barrenly to peruse their precepts, and to rival their speeches in
our own tongue rather than to blunder over their periods in the
mummy-lore of antiquity. There is no language the sounds of

22

winch have ever vibrated on human ears, but the exploration of
its literary remains might be profitable to the mass of mankind ;
but there is certainly no literature that can so richly profit men,
individually, as that of their own country and their own age.
Award what distinctions you please to the erudition of scholar-
ship, there is no linguistic accomplishment equal in social value
to that of an elegant familiarity with our vernacular language.

Elocution, the highest department of this vernacular study, is
slightingly esteemed — nay, it has got a positively bad name —
among the literary classes, as a trifling, worthless, manneristic,
unnatural thing ; whereas it is, when rightly understood, a highly
refining and pre-eminently intellectual study. The truth is, the
name Elocution is applied to that which is not Elocution at
all. It is a mere abuse of the term to call that Elocution which
does not enable a man to pronounce with propriety, to deliver
language according to the usage of polite society, to declaim with
physical ease, and to read with the tones of natural conversation.

I regret that, in conclusion, I cannot say of our system of
school discipline that it lays a good foundation for Oratory ; I
cannot even limit the expression of its influence to a negative :
I must add, that it is positively detrimental ; that school neglect
is practically equivalent to school encouragement of vicious habits
of delivery ; and that to our schools may be distinctly traced the
unnatural intonations and the uncouth deformities which charac-
terize our Public Oratory. As Quinctilian in his Institutes, — a
book as fresh in its maxims, and as applicable to the necessities
of the present day, as if it had been written for these times, instead
of eighteen centuries ago, — as Quinctilian begins his orator’s
training in the juvenile and rudimental stage of education, so
we must commence our reformation — if reform we are to have —
with our teaching of the elements of language, and instil our
principles of correct delivery in the infant mind. Thus only, but
thus surely, will improvement be achieved, and the disgrace be
removed of our present Pulpit, Platform, and National ineffi-
ciency in the Art of Speech.

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